Magic for Beginners: The Essence of the Ximaxian System

Magic for Beginners: The Essence of the Ximaxian System

Note: Drasil and Orril requested that I post this little summary I prepared for Renakroz here. Should we make it sticky?

BTW I am still working on that "Magic for Newbies" guide Twen asked... Currently: procrastinating... Maybe I'll have a version I'm satisfied with by the end of the summer!

Note: If there's anything else you want included in this guide, post below! Adding a silver bard per request might help speed up the procedure!

Magic for Beginners

by Silfer & Coren

GIST

SYSTEM:The Ximaxian system is the secular, scientific study of magic (in the Santharian kingdom of the Sarvonian continent), interpreting the world through (the angles of) the four elements: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire. Ximaxian magic (excluding Raw Magic) revolves principally around the content of the Carall, the universal aura, and its manipulation. This view is very flexible - very few things are impossible per definition of the system. Magic-users are limited by means: A fire mage cannot extinguish a fire by conjuring up water. However, he can extinguish by manipulating the flame itself for instance. Thus, the system is not necessarily limited in ends  except the individual limitations of the casters.

CARALL:Ximaxian mages believe in the existence of the universal aura (Carall) as the essence of Creation. Although everything has a carall, some claim that recognition of individual carallia (this carall, that carall) is a simplification. A carall is the defining principle of an entity: the carall (aura) decides what a given object is, how it behaves etc.

The form of a carall is the underlying Idea of the object, which characterizes the concept the object belongs to. The form is what helps us identify different types of objects or group those sharing a lot of similarities together: For instance there are red fish, silver fish, blue fish with white stripes, long fish, stubby fish, salt-water fish, lake fish, big fish, small fish etc. but it is the Form of all these Caralls, the Fish-Idea (the idea of a fish), that enables us to identify all these creatures, despite their differences, as fish. Only Raw Magic can directly manipulate the Form of the Carall by e.g. substituting the idea of a spoon with the idea of an egg to transform a spoon into an egg.

The content of the carall consists of ounia and the links (Xeua) holding them together in the specific structure that defines, constitutes the given object. Ounia (singular: oun), the building blocks of the aura (and in fact all of Existence) come in four flavours: Fire, Wind, Water and Earth. Each oun is dedicated to and contains the characteristics of one of the four elements. Differences between objects as well as personalities  in fact almost all differences  arise from how many of what ounia there are (loosely speaking; ounia arent something one can count and should better be expressed as proportions in relation to the ounia of other elements present) and how they are linked in a carall.

Any particular carall typically contains all kinds of ounia, however the amount of each type (wind-water-earth-fire) may  and in fact, does  vary. For all practical purposes foreign ounia in the physical manifestation of an element are negligible. Thus, the avatars of the elements (e.g. the water of a raindrop is an avatar of the Element of Water) are assumed to be pure.

MAGIC:A change in the aura reflects as a change (which can be physical, spiritual or in some cases both) in the object/being. By altering a carall, a mage can affect a change in the actual presence represented by that carall. This (sometimes called the Mirror Principle) is the basis of all magic according to the Academy of Ximax.

Ximaxian magic (excluding Raw Magic) is achieved by manipulating the ounia and the links between them. A mage of one element manipulates the ounia of that element, while Xeua (link-making) and Ecua (link-breaking) mages typically manipulate the links and are therefore able to directly affect more than one element in the carall. (Xeua and Ecua mages can also manipulate the ounia, while elemental mages cannot directly manipulate links. Also, elemental mages can only affect their own element: A water mage for example can only manipulate water ounia)

Will is the primary tool through which a Ximaxian mage modifies the carall  and thus casts magic.

Very wonderful start here Coren! "Magic for Dummies" will most likely be the most useful entry to of ever reached the magic forum IMHO. A small overview of Spiritual and Physical representations might be useful as well. Not an elaborate description of all these things but a general overview of what defines their catagorizations might be helpful. Since these representations are part of each of the elemental schools. Keep up the good work hun.

I like it really - my only concern is, that more people than now think from now on wrongly, that they understand Caelereth magic ! ;)

***Astropic of the day***"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly. ~Don Juan"

Well, in theory, if a xeua mage and an ecua mage of enough power were working together, I think they could completely alter a car'all, and since the car'all of an object pretty much determines what it is, they could alter what the object is. But, yes, raw magic is really old, and I'm not sure where it could possibly go now, since it was meant to be the magic of the Weavers, and the rewrite Rayne did changed them enough that it wouldn't really fit anymore.

*Tries in vain to resist the immensely strong powers of the dreaded puppy eyes, but alas...* Coren - basically what he was saying was that Weavers were possessed of too much power because they could actually alter the true nature of items to change their existential forms. He also suggested that the formal write-up contain simple descriptions of the Spheres and their functions and purposes. Now, I don't claim to be an expert on Santharian magic (like he did... grr...) but I understand the general concepts involved and would like to learn more so that I can take a bigger part in these magical theory discussions than just repeating what my Coór-darned brother said. IMHO, it is a rather powerful ability to be able to alter something's true nature through manipulation of the cár'áll itself, but I guess this could be supported by saying that Weavers are extremely rare and use their powers only when the situation severely demands it? All you magi out there, correct me if I'm wrong...

Weavers may be extinct, away in another dimension, or been transformed by Rayne but they are not the only ones who use Raw Magic!

@Ysuran: Raw mages are extremely rare - it's more like a god(s)-given talent. Not even the most gifted mages of the Academy reproduce - or imo even truly understand - raw magic. See the general entry on the magic of Caelereth

Once again, I do not claim to be an expert; I was merely relaying what my brother said. Quick question on my part, though - if raw magic is a god(s)-given talent, then is it closer to clerical magic or the power of faith than it is to the secular science of elemental magic?

its closer to to Ximaxian magic because, despite the fact it is given by the gods, using it does not require their assistance. In clerical magic(at least in my understanding) you are able to do something because the god does it through you. While in Raw magic you are able to do it yourself.

Don't forget that having a beautiful voice is also a god-given talent! That is the sense I used the term (ie "ability"), didn't mean to suggest a clerical approach.

Raw Magic is neither close to Ximaxian nor clerical magic. "Raw Magic" as I understand it simply describes a type of magic which achieves its effects by directly altering the Form of the Carall. If you do read the entries - and I hope you have done so already Drasil before posting so many spells everyday!- you will see that Raw Magic is not taught in the Academy. Hence, "Raw Magic" is not part of the "Ximaxian system".

Clerical magic can sometimes achieve the effects of raw magic - that of directly altering the Form of something - indirectly. Now what does this mean? That when a cleric "casts magic" (ie prays to his deity for help) he does not have "altering the Form of a carall" in mind as his purpose. Imho he would just have the desired effect (eg turning sand to flour) in mind and due to the power of his faith or divine intervention that is achieved. What happened here is that sand transformed into flour because the Idea of Sand around which that object (the sand) was constituted was substituted with the Idea of Flour. So directly altering the Form of something - ie raw magic - was achieved in an indirect way. But keep in mind that not all effects achieved by clerical magic are raw magic effects! In fact these would be only very very very rare occurences

Also, can I request that you only focus on what needs to be changed in or added to the guide in this thread? Otherwise it just gets crowded and people lose track of the actual discussion.